The Latest Half-Life News Will Give You Chills

I know what you’re thinking, is this the moment that Half-Life 3 is announced? Sadly, our dreams were not meant to be. But the latest Half-Life news fluttering about is still worth our attention.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to 2012. An intrepid team of developers went in and re-worked the original Half-Life game in order to make their mod of the classic, named Black Mesa. And it was fantastic! The game completely re-worked the original code of the 1998 title and modernized it with better graphics. Just a quick little polish and update to make the game more accessible to modern audiences; nothing flashy, and exactly what everyone wanted. Let’s be real, as much as we may love Half-Life, the original looks janky and gross. A polish can’t possibly hurt the game.

Moreover, Black Mesa evolved the world a little. There is more miscellany. More detail. The devs behind Black Mesa went the extra mile that the original Half-Life devs couldn’t due to technical limitations. And although Black Mesa certainly has its faults – it’s a free mod, after all – it is absolutely worth everyone’s time if they ever had any interest in Half-Life as a series. The problem is, there was only so much the devs could do. Black Mesa ends at the Lambda Complex of Half-Life, just as Gordon Freeman hops into the quantum portal to Xen, the alien planet that caused the initial destruction of Black Mesa and subsequently the human race. This is the climax, and for those who really love the story, getting the ultimate cliffhanger in a mod and not being able to finish the game is a killer.

Enter 2015, when bmrf.us – yes, that’s the official website – suddenly is re-coded to display a repeating emergency broadcast stylized with the classic American Emergency Alert System. The message details the official government response to the events that take place during Half-Life to, when Gordon Freeman accidentally rips a hole in space-time and causes the aforementioned alien apocalyptic invasion. The message is vague, as one might expect in such an event, and merely details evacuation directions and emergency responses. Knowing the details of the story behind the Black Mesa Incident, however, the message can easily send shivers up the spine.

What does it mean? Who the hell knows, honestly. It might be a reminder that Black Mesa is an awesome mod that you should be playing right now. It could be an ad campaign to bring attention to the release of the highly touted second part of Black Mesa, featuring the re-updated Xen maps, which have been two years in development. The bmrf.us site is also part of Pizza Code Mystery, an ARG (alternate-reality game), which is all about deciphering codes and communiqué related to the Black Mesa incident. Perhaps this message could be an event with the ARG of Pizza Code Mystery.

Again, who knows! But it’s creepy as heck, and you should at least take the moment to check it out at bmrf.us, or watch the video below to get the same clip.